Otherways- Fiction Fanatics

Once upon a time, when I was just a child, teachers told their students that man was different from all other animals because he used tools. Then we found that a lot of other animals went for the whole tool-using thing as well: otters, gorillas, birds, even dogs and horses have exhibited some ability to manipulate tools.

So we’ve tried other ways to set ourselves apart, like language. Turns out that at least whales and elephants are big on language, and primates are even capable of learning sign language, so nix that difference as well.

Now researchers on three different continents have decided that chimpanzees have entered the Stone Age, so I think we can officially give up on setting ourselves apart from the other animals. Personally, I find this pretty darn cool. I still hope to find intelligent life on other planets, but given the huge distances involved, there are major challenges to developing a relationship with that intelligent life if we do find it. Even were distance not an issue, the possibility that that life would be so foreign to us that we could not understand each other is very real.

Here, though, is intelligent life in our own backyard.

We share 98% of the same genes, we eat a similar diet, and we grew up in the same neighborhood. Odds are pretty good that we will be able to really communicate, though it may take a little time.

For us, at least, the Stone Age wasn’t exactly the express lane. Looks like we spent about 3.4 million years hanging out, learning to control fire, cook food, keep dogs as pets and make pointy things so we would have more meat to toss on the grill. Granted, it may not take the chimps quite as long, since they have older siblings to watch, but we aren’t talking about a Planet of the Apes scenario any time soon.

What we are talking about, though, is a whole new level of humanitarian questions. If we can prove that the chimpanzees are in the Stone Age, then there can be no denying that they are an intelligent species. Some changes, like whether or not chimpanzees could be experimented on, or kept as pets, should be fairly obvious. We’ve pretty much determined that owning people is bad, and I should think extending that rationale to non-humans that are demonstrating even developing level human intelligence is a no brainer.

But there are other programs where the intentions are pure, but the morality gets a lot grayer. Take for example, the very successful Species Survival Plan. This is a program that has saved several species from extinction. It is well supervised, carefully run, and entirely meant to protect the species for the future. All good stuff, right?

It is, if you aren’t a sentient creature.

Were we to practice the same standards on humans, it would be called eugenics, and very illegal.

So assuming the chimpanzees really are entering the Stone Age, the question of how to ethically preserve them while maintaining their autonomy becomes very important. Do they have a right to choose their mates, even if that choice is deleterious to the gene pool as a whole? What about keeping families together? Birth control? Medication for diseases they can’t understand yet?

How we choose to answer these questions will say a lot about us, and our readiness to meet intelligent species from other planets. Let’s face it, if we can’t treat an intelligent species we should be able to relate to with dignity, consideration and respect, then how can we expect to do so for the truly alien?

Cheers,

Michelle